Reading - Posterous API

Overview

The reading API lets you read posts on Posterous.

This API is not yet frozen. Please let us know if you are using it.

Authentication

Authentication is done by basic HTTP authentication with a user's Posterous email address and password. It is required for getsites and optional for readposts. You must authenticate to read private sites or private posts.

Method

URL

http://posterous.com/api/getsites

Fields

None

Response

    
      
        1
        Sachin Agarwal's Posterous
        http://sachin.posterous.com
        false
        true
        true
        50

The response includes a list of all sites owned and authored by this user.

Method

URL

http://posterous.com/api/readposts

Fields

"site_id" - Optional. Id of the site to read from
"hostname" - Optional. Subdomain of the site to read from
"num_posts" - Optional. How many posts you want. Default is 10, max is 50
"page" - Optional. What 'page' you want (based on num_posts). Default is 1
"tag" - Optional

This call can be authenticated or not. If it is not authenticated, either the site_id or hostname is required, and it will only return public posts.

Response

  
    
      http://post.ly/abc123
      http://sachin.posterous.com/brunch-in-san-francisco
      <title>Brunch in San Francisco</title>
      <id>55</id>
      <body>What a great brunch!</body>
      Sun, 03 May 2009 19:58:58 -0700
      0
      false
      sachin agarwal
      http://debug2.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/16071/Picture_1_thumb.png
      true
      
        image
        
          http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/IMG_0477.scaled500.jpg
          47
          333
          500
        
        
          http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/IMG_0477.thumb.jpg
          5
          36
          36
        
      
      
        audio
        http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/sheila.mp3
        10116
        Smashing Pumpkins
        Adore
        To Sheila
      
      
        video
        http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/movie.avi
        6537
        http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/movie.png
        http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/movie.flv
        http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/sachin/DIptatiCkiv/movie.mp4
      
      0
      
        <body>This is a comment</body>
        Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:33:43 -0700
        sachin
        http://debug2.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/16071/Picture_1_thumb.png

The response is an array of posts.

Method

URL

http://posterous.com/api/gettags

Fields

"site_id" - Optional. Id of the site to read from
"hostname" - Optional. Subdomain of the site to read from

Authentication is optional. You must authenticate to include tags used in private posts or on private sites.

Response

    
      
        1
        New York Food
        500

Error

Response:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <rsp stat="fail">
      <err code="3001" msg="Invalid Posterous email or password" />
  </rsp>

3001 - Invalid Posterous email or password
3002 - Invalid site id
3003 - User does not have access to this site
3005 - Unable to get posts

Questions? Reach us at help@posterous.com at anytime and we'll get right back to you ASAP!